Stephan Schmidheiny

On 10 November 2026, Italy’s Court of Cassation quashed the nine-and-a-half-year sentence in the Casale Monferrato proceedings and ordered a new appeal hearing for approximately sixty asbestos-related deaths. Aggravated negligent-homicide charges remain at issue in the remanded cases; there is no final criminal conviction under this ruling. Full written reasons were not yet available at the research date. The same ruling declared the charges time-barred for 25 other victims.

State of the evidence

Ruling reported by ANSA, Rai News and Reuters; full reasoning pending.

Legal status — source text

Supreme Court annulment with remand on 10 November 2026; criminal proceedings continue for the remaining counts.

Attribution

Prosecutors allege aggravated negligent homicide resulting from asbestos exposure.

On 17 April 2025, the Turin appeal court sentenced him to nine years and six months in the Casale Monferrato case. Some counts ended in acquittal or were time-barred. Italy’s Supreme Court subsequently quashed the sentence in November 2026.

State of the evidence

Appeal reported by Rai News and subsequent Supreme Court ruling.

Legal status — source text

Appeal conviction quashed; retrial ordered on 10 November 2026.

Attribution

Alleged negligent homicide associated with asbestos exposure.

On 7 June 2023, a Novara court sentenced Stephan Schmidheiny to twelve years for negligent manslaughter in the Casale Monferrato Eternit bis case. Prosecutors had initially sought intentional-homicide liability; the court adopted a negligence-based offence. This ruling no longer stands following the 2025 appeal and the 2026 Supreme Court decision.

State of the evidence

First-instance verdict reported by ANSA and superseded by later decisions.

Legal status — source text

The 2023 ruling was superseded and a fresh appeal was ordered on 10 November 2026.

Attribution

Prosecutors attributed asbestos-related deaths at Casale Monferrato to his conduct.